Resources for Care · Framework
Care Frameworks: Deep Dive
Worden’s Four Tasks of Grief, worked out in practice
Grief is where AI complications show up most often in pastoral care — digital clones of the dead, careers lost to automation, screens standing in for mourning. This deep-dive takes one trusted model, Worden's Four Tasks of Grief, and works it out in practice: what to do, what to avoid, how to pace the journey, and what a real visit sounds like.
Start where you are:
Part 1 · The model
Worden’s Four Tasks of Grief
“I want to understand the model first.”
The framework beneath everything here: four active tasks of healing, how AI complicates each one, and the pastoral goal for each. Read this first if the series is new to you.
Start with the model →Part 2 · Scope of practice
Lay Visitor Guardrails
“I’m a lay visitor about to make a visit.”
For Stephen Ministers, visitation teams, and elders: what to do, what to avoid, special rules for AI and grief, and when to call the pastor immediately.
Part 3 · Caring for the family
The Co-Caregiver Guide
“A worried family member has come to me.”
Supporting the spouse, parent, or adult child of someone lost in digital grief: how to listen, five strategies for home, traps to avoid, and a prayer for the caregiver.
Part 4 · Pacing the journey
The Care Timeline & Follow-Up Protocol
“I’m planning care over the coming months.”
A realistic four-phase timeline from first visit to healthy goodbye, the follow-up rhythm between visits, and how to know when intensive care is done.
Part 5 · A model visit, annotated
The Griefbot Conversation
“Show me what this looks like in a real conversation.”
Evelyn, 76, texts an AI trained on her late husband’s messages. A full annotated transcript of a first visit: the safety check, the work of Task 1, and the close.
The pages also link onward in reading order, so you can start at the model and read straight through.